Wardlow / The market
The market
Published auction data, read properly. These are real figures from the sale rooms, not our own results — what they mean for you depends entirely on what you are trying to buy.
Books 1–4, Park Paddocks, Newmarket, October 2025
Tattersalls October Yearling Sale 2025 in four numbers
A record for the sale, and the third time in four years it has passed 200 million guineas.
A record, up from the previous best of 60,000gns.
Across all four books.
Including the two most expensive yearlings sold anywhere in the world in 2025.
Source: Tattersalls. Figures as published at the conclusion of the sale.
Three years
How the October sale has moved
| Year | Turnover | Average | Median | Clearance | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 208,780,004gns | — | 70,000gns | 87% | Record turnover and record median. The two most expensive yearlings sold anywhere in the world. |
| 2024 | 204,561,700gns | 144,465gns | 58,000gns | 86% | First time the sale passed 200 million guineas. Turnover up 29% year on year from a catalogue trimmed by 11%. |
| 2023 | — | 103,900gns | 52,000gns | 82% | 1,862 yearlings offered. The year against which the 2024 surge is measured. |
Turnover figures cover Books 1 to 4. Where a figure is shown as an em dash it was not published in the source we are citing, and we would rather leave a gap than estimate one.
Book 1, opening session
Where the softening actually showed
2025 against 2024, day one of Book 1 — the session that sets the tone for the fortnight.
Our reading
Four things the headline numbers hide
The top of the market got selective, and the middle got stronger
Those two things happened in the same fortnight and most summaries only report one of them. Book 1's opening session saw the average fall 11% and the median 19%, with clearance dropping from 92% to 79%. Yet across all four books the sale set a record median of 70,000gns and cleared 87%. A bigger Book 1 catalogue — 537 lots against 448 — met a buying bench that had become choosier at the very top.
Concentration at the top is extreme, and it is worth knowing where the line falls
Tattersalls reported that 189 yearlings made 300,000gns or more across Books 1 and 2, and that this represented 77% of every yearling to reach that figure at public auction in Europe during 2025. If you are buying above 300,000gns, one fortnight in Newmarket is effectively the market. Below it, you have a great deal more choice about where and when you buy.
A record median is the number that matters to most owners
Headlines follow the 3,700,000gns lot. Almost nobody reading this will buy one. The median rising to a record 70,000gns tells you what the middle of the market actually did — and it went up while the top was softening. For a first-time owner budgeting around that figure, 2025 was a more competitive year than the Book 1 headlines suggested.
Clearance rate is the honest measure of demand
Turnover and averages are distorted by a handful of enormous lots. Clearance tells you what proportion of horses actually found a buyer, and it is the figure we watch most closely when advising a vendor on reserve. Book 1's opening session at 79% against the previous year's 92% was the single clearest signal of the fortnight.
Translation
What this means at your budget
You are buying in the deepest and most forgiving part of the market, where the largest number of horses are sold and where patience is rewarded. Books 2 and 3, the Irish sales and the breeze-ups all compete for your money, which is an advantage.
The hardest place to find value and where an agent earns their commission most clearly. You are competing with pinhookers, agents buying to trade, and owners with more money than you at the top of the range.
Two weeks in Newmarket accounted for 77% of the European market at this level in 2025. Your choice of where to buy narrows sharply; your choice of what to buy narrows more.
Sources
Where these figures come from
Every number on this page is published by the auction house or the trade press and linked below. We have not adjusted, smoothed or re-based anything. If you think we have read it wrongly we would genuinely like to hear why.
- Tattersalls October Yearling Sale 2025 results — Tattersalls
- Book 1 opening session, October 2025 — Thoroughbred Daily News
- Tattersalls October Yearling Sale 2024 results — Racing Post